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I left my AirPods Pro at a school sports field an hour away, and I didn't realize until the next morning after it been raining heavily. I gave them up for lost
by helipad 2y ago
I left my AirPods Pro at a school sports field an hour away, and I didn't realize until the next morning after it been raining heavily. I gave them up for lost and needed headphones for work – so ordered some from Apple with same day delivery.
A week later, I got a Find My notification that they had been spotted – at the same sports field. I figured what the hell, put on a podcast and drove the hour to see if I could find them. Worst case scenario, a couple of hours of driving.
Using Find My and the directional feature points you in the right direction to within feet, I found them in the tall grass.
The case had been perfectly watertight, and they'd barely lost a percent of power in a week. Remarkable really all round.
- WanderPanda 2y agoI washed my Airpods in a washing machine once and they continued working normally for 6 months until the noise cancelling started to fail on one side.
- hilux 2y agoMine lose 20-30% sitting in their case overnight. It's very annoying. You ARE lucky!
- mckn1ght 2y agoSomething is wrong with them. I can use mine repeatedly over several days before finally needing to plug them in again. You should reach out to support.
- hilux 2y agoI've googled it and tried all the recommended fixes. This is a frequent problem - only for some people.
- mckn1ght 2y agoHave you actually talked to Apple? They might just replace them. Is this the only pair that’s demonstrated this behavior, or has it been multiple units?
- eek2121 2y agoThe left earbud dying is a frequent problem. Sometimes I sometimes hear about the right, but usually the left. Even more rarely, both die frequently, which isn’t the real issue…they drain the case, right? (if not ignore the rest of this) Want me to blow your mind? The REASON for this is the case. Everyone always suggests cleaning, but that won’t help for the long term. I know because I have tried. I took a pair of tweezers and bent the metal contacts in the case outward. That was a year ago. I have not had a single issue since. Not one. I am willing to bet Apple brushed a manufacturing defect under the rug. YMMV and if your airpods are under warranty, consider that first, but after having the issue with first gen and second gen, I wasn’t about to deal with nonsense.
- fragmede 2y ago> I am willing to bet Apple brushed a manufacturing defect under the rug. What? that doesn't sound like Apple at all. They would never do that. I get butterflies just thinking that.
- ornornor 2y ago> butterflies I see what you did there.
- samatman 2y agoThe butterfly keyboard was a _design_ defect, and these are very different things. Apple went to great lengths (because telling Jony Ive 'no' was not an option) to try and tweak the design to function correctly in the real world, and failed. But they came out of the box functioning perfectly, and stayed that way until tiny specks of dust inevitably entered the picture. The entire saga was extremely boneheaded and after I took mine in for a replacement (which, I must say, was out of warranty and only cost me time) I vowed to never buy another MacBook which had that absurd keyboard. Fortunately I didn't have to, they went back to the proven design which is a true beast and just keeps chugging along for years without a single missed or repeated keystroke. But this is very different from shipping products with known _manufacturing_ defects, and then 'brushing it under the rug', presumably by not issuing a recall. I can't recall even the former happening with post-iPod era Apple products, let alone the latter. In this particular case, the most likely culprit is pushing the AirPod into the charging slot with enough force to bend down the contact. There isn't a way to manufacture a spring contact which isn't vulnerable to this, and the fix is easy if you have thin enough tweezers. If Apple shipped an edition of AirPods cases with bad contacts, which didn't charge out of the box, it's a safe bet that there would be press about it. Maybe there was, but if so, I missed the 635 comment HN thread about it.
- jbverschoor 2y agoMine last not even 10 minutes after one year of use. Apple did nothing. So no more AirPods ever for me anymore
- gandalfgreybeer 2y agoThat definitely isn’t normal. My guess is you need to clean the contacts in the AirPods. They might be in the case but it’s still pairing or trying to pair. Shouldn’t drain that much, especially overnight.
- asveikau 2y agoMaybe the battery is failing?
- talldatethrow 2y agoIf Person A loses 1% over a week in standby, and person B loses 20% overnight, it's probably not the battery.. Unless Person B also tells you that in general their air pods only last 30 minutes playing music. As stated, their percentage of power level fall vs person A is 2000% more being generous (person A said a week, not a night). If it was because of the battery, the air pods would also last way way way less playing music.
- asveikau 2y agoExcept when lithium batteries get old they start to lose double digit percentages in a couple hours. My experience anyway.
- talldatethrow 2y agoYet when you actually use them, they retain basic the same energy capacity???
- samstave 2y agoYou're right. Its definitely the Person.
- SllX 2y agoCould be either/or. I long ago lost the brassiere that came with my AirPods Max (not really lost, I just can’t be arsed to dig it out of where I think it is) and they’ll drain themselves fairly quickly just trying to throw out stray connections to any of the five or so devices they can connect to unless I make a point of disconnecting them. AirPods Pro exhibit the same exact symptoms when the contact inside the case needs to be cleaned.
- maronato 2y agoThat is a lot, but I wonder if GP’s only decreased by 1% because their phone wasn’t close by. AirPods and their iPhones probably keep pinging each other to maintain the Bluetooth connection, which must have an effect on the battery.
- SllX 2y agoOnly when you pull them out of the case. Otherwise they just stay asleep. When I replaced my Powerbeats Pro (same fundamental tech as any AirPods) with AirPods Pro, I went about a year or so without touching the Powerbeats Pro and they just sat in one spot not too far from anything they could connect to since I never unpaired them from anything. I pulled them out a year later, and the Beats themselves were still fully charged and I think the case was still about 70%. Couldn’t tell you what I had left the case at though.
- inopinatus 2y agoTry leaving them on the bedpost, c.f. Donegan, L (1959)
- okdood64 2y agoYours are broken somehow. That's insane.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- dyauspitr 2y agoI find it funny that you consider a drastic difference like that a matter of luck. Clearly something isn’t right with your pods.
- stingraycharles 2y agoNot normal. Case takes months to deplete without usage for me.
- jb1991 2y agoThat is very strange and defective.
- gcanyon 2y agoMine sometimes don't charge in the case, and can either end up with the case fully charged and the airpods fully drained, or if they charge/discharge through the night with the airpods at a random charge and the case somewhat drained. I seem to be the only person this happens to, but the won't-charge-in-the-case problem was so bad with my original airpods pro that Apple ended up replacing the case, then the airpods pro and the case, over a very frustrating several months of back and forth. My new airpods pro were fine for maybe eight months, but the problem has started again. So far it's only once every few weeks, which I can live with.
- matwood 2y agoIf you don’t know, make sure the light blinks when you drop each AirPod in. That will show it hit the contacts correctly. My APP 1s also had this issue way more often than my second gens.
- gcanyon 2y agoThanks! In my case (pun intended) the AirPods will sometimes just refuse to charge. I have spent several hours holding the case open and wedging one AirPod up… slightly… to get it to charge, and another several hours trying to replicate that delicate configuration with small shims of various design.
- foundddit 2y agoJust chiming in to say I had the same problem and found a solution. For some reason, my AirPods silently connect to my iPhone while they're in their case and both devices are asleep. Why they do this, I have no clue. Just quality 2020s Apple programming. Anyways, there's an easy solution: go into the settings app (not the drop down menu) and turn off Bluetooth on your phone/ipad when you don't need it. Your AirPods will no longer randomly drain at night. Neither will your Apple Pencil, if you have one of those. You'll find a lot of comments on Apple support forums/reddit/etc saying it's impossible for it to be Bluetooth and that you should never turn it off for any reason because it's crazy. People for some reason are very assertive about that. But they're wrong. I now make a habit of only turning Bluetooth on precisely when I need it and immediately turn it off afterwards and now nothing gets drained needlessly. Now the only AirPods bug that drives me insane is the volume randomly shooting up halfway to max randomly sometimes when I connect to my computer, but I made a script to somewhat fix it.
- deeth_starr_v 2y agoCan’t you just turn off Bluetooth easily via Control Center? Top left Bluetooth symbol
- foundddit 2y agoThat doesn't turn Bluetooth off. It's deceptive. It simply "disconnects" it, but it'll still connect at a random point in the future. It also doesn't really disconnect it since it'll still detect devices and burn away your battery life. And I experimented with it countless times over a couple years. That's why I said you need to do it through settings directly. Otherwise it won't do anything.
- iwontberude 2y agoYes it does. Once you tap that button Bluetooth will remain off.
- jq-r 2y ago
- scellus 2y agoSame here, occasionally I find both the case and the ear pieces with empty batteries while they haven’t been nowhere near empty when I left them, usually previous day or evening.
- iaabtpbtpnn 2y agoMy AirPods went thru the washer and dryer in their case. No damage whatsoever!
- mrbungie 2y agoMy airpods pro were totally destroyed in the washer/dryer, no idea why. Maybe it was because it was quite a lengthy washing cycle?
- adtac 2y agoYou forgot to set the washing machine to "Whites"
- WWLink 2y agoYea my brother has ruined 2 pairs of airpods in the washing machine.
- LeonB 2y agoI wonder what the difference is? One (admittedly uninformed) hypothesis is that there might have been more detergent, and the failure was caused by detergent residue. If this was true, they could be (possibly) repaired by rinsing with fresh water to remove said residue and leaving to dry. (Lots of other possible hypotheses and confounding factors)
- ravenstine 2y agoI sometimes wear my airpods in the shower. Have gotten water in them often, but this never caused them to fail or be permanently damaged.
- pcf 2y agoOut of curiosity – why do you wear them in the shower? Are they meant to withstand that?
- 2y ago
- agumonkey 2y agoWhat would happen if you lost only one?
- wafflemaker 2y agoSlight chance of finding it if you notice it's missing fast enough. FindMy only finds the charger, not the headphones out of charger, but you can make it play a sound. You can buy a replacement for about 50% of the price of a new set (complete with charger case).
- Eric_WVGG 2y agoThat’s not correct. One night I dropped my case as I crossed the street to my building. I grabbed it off the ground without paying attention, both buds had fallen out. In the morning, I picked up the case and noticed that it felt light. Find My reported both buds as having been seen outside on the sidewalk, one last seen four hours ago, the other six. I ran downstairs and outside to find them both smashed by car traffic. Another time a bud popped out of the case while passing through the TSA X-rays (yes, I have lousy luck with these). I was able to pinpoint the direction with the app and make it plays sounds, but the agents were unable to dig under the rollers and get it out.
- agumonkey 2y agoIn my case I only own cheap aukey earbuds and so far I couldn't find any information about buying a single earbud
- teekert 2y agoWow 1 percent in a week. I use mine every couple of days but they drain much faster. Perhaps yours decided, he, see no iPhone for a couple of hours let’s do some deep sleep. I’d love to have more control over then charge cycle like that.
- thekevan 2y agoI accidentally put mine through the washing machine. The aftermarket case I had them in died but the Airpods themselves survived just fine. That was 2 years ago and I still use them every day.
- furyofantares 2y agoI lost two sets in the snow at my mom's house. Where she lives the snow sticks around for 4 or 5 months. They would have been near the top of a few feet of snow where we were making snow angels and generally frolicking, and then covered up by additional snowfall. We found them once it melted. They both work fine.
- ErigmolCt 2y agoIt’s rare to hear (for my ears) such a perfect outcome when it comes to lost tech
- carstenhag 2y ago(in germany) Friend took multiple trains, Ubahn, Bus. 5 Seconds after leaving the bus, he realized he had forgotten his backpack with id, laptop, etc. We were "hunting" busses for 2h but couldn't find it. He didn't have Find My set up on the mac. Filed police report etc. A week later he got mail saying the bag was found in a train in Augsburg. Which was the 2nd of 4 legs of the trips or something, and he was completely off where he lost it :D
- ja27 2y agoI saw someone on Twitter that left hers in a seatback on a flight. They'd show up on Find My every day for almost two months before they died. She talked to the airline multiple times about someone checking her seatback and several times they insisted they weren't there. Doubtful they ever checked at all but impressive battery life.
- conradev 2y agoI used to bike from SF to Apple in Cupertino once a week. One week, I dropped my AirPods case on the ride and only when I got to work did I realize I was missing an AirPod. The next week, I stopped right around where I dropped the case and I found it, working just fine. I love that when you drop the case, the AirPods scatter into the farthest reaches of wherever you are – favorite feature
- johnwalkr 2y agoFind my is really a killer feature. When AirTags were first released, there was a bunch of media on potential use by stalkers and it seems like Apple hasn’t advertised how airtags (and findmy with devices) work at all since then. Most people think they just work locally until I show them an AirTag halfway around the world that just updated its location. I bought one for my luggage, and when boarding a train in Paris, I was informed that I left my luggage behind. Went back to grab my luggage, boarded my train and then bought more AirTags at the first opportunity. I’ve used them multiple times to prove my lost luggage is in the airport, countless times to track shipping of high-value goods and countless times to find my keys.